Paralyzed
by InoSakuShine
Summary: Zuko knew that for Toph, losing her legs was more than just losing the ability to walk. How could he have let this happen? How could the end of the war lead to the events that would leave her... paralyzed?
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **Hi, everyone! I haven't been around for a while, but inspiration has struck. I think this one might be a hit. So, please review and give me some feedback as usual. I answer questions, too.

_Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar, etc._

Main characters: Zuko, Toph.

_

* * *

_

_**Paralyzed**_

**Chapter 1: Paralyzed**

It was the most magnanimous rock Zuko ever saw, no doubt an expensive chunk taken from the ceiling of the palace. None the less, it served to wipe out the enormous amount of rebel rioters come to knock the new fire lord off his underserved throne. No one expected such a mass to invade the palace the week after Zuko's coronation, and only a few guards and Toph were present to witness it.

Of course, the boulder was a gift from Toph. He could see the blind bandit in the corner of his eyes, her movements quick, abrupt, and graceful. She was the last to linger after Aang, Katara, Sokka and Suki departed for a quick visit to the South Pole, claiming it was too cold for her tastes. Now Zuko was even happier she remained behind, smashing these rioters to pieces.

Zuko, fighting relentlessly with bursts and rings of fire, would not allow the others to whisk him away to an escape route, or fight his battles for him. He kept his two carefully trained, golden eyes on Toph, who was being cornered by the rogue fire benders. He may have had his own hands tied up, but he would be _damned_ if she was burned.

But fire wasn't the only enemy here.

A rumbling like rolling thunder shook the hall. Men garbed in red Fire Nation robes danced in the back of the hall, winding and thrusting their arms in unusual, uncharacteristic patterns. And then-

"LOOK OUT!" Zuko screamed, powerless to move as parts of the stone ceiling struck asunder crashed down around him. The disguised earth benders were bringing down the palace, as well as ceiling that was above Toph.

The Fire Lord watched helplessly as an expression of shock appeared on Toph's face, and she blindly covered her head and fell into a semi-crouch. She could only hear the rock smash around her. She could _feel_ it.

Her cry was of surprise rather than pain.

* * *

Voices.

She opened her eyes to slits, knowing that it would not make any difference. The soft bedding that pressed against her back told her she was lying down, but she wished to get up and 'feel' her surroundings. Tentatively, she tried to wiggle her toes.

"Toph?" a feminine voice called lightly. Toph sensed that there were others in the room. As her memory slowly floated back to her, she knew it must be true. She was injured, and it was _embarrassing_.

"_Toph_," Katara repeated, her voice smooth and motherly. The little earth bender grunted in reply.

"_Oh-my-God_, she's alright," another voice cried, presumably belonging to Suki. _The whole gang must be here_, Toph thought with wonder. Questions burned in her throat: How long had she been in this plushy little bed? Why weren't they in the South Pole, pouncing on innocent penguins?

The most mysterious enigma was the other's silence. Toph almost scoffed at the lack of teasing from Sokka, who surely mocked her weakness. Her injuries must be minor, since even Aang had no condolences to offer her. And _where_ was-

"Zuko!" Toph cried, sitting up painfully. Suddenly, like an old film reel, her memory came back to her in a series of flickering images: The rebellion. The fire. The earth benders!

"What happened?" Toph demanded sternly. An even heavier silence met her words, but eventually she received an answer.

"The rioters were subdued," said Zuko, a raspy voice further away than Katara's. Toph exhaled, letting herself fall leisurely back into the bed as she sighed.

"What happened... _to me_?" She asked wearily, her voice simultaneously child-like and mature. There was a reason she was in bed, and no one had bothered to explain to her what was going on.... And she couldn't quite feel her legs, but was afraid to tell them so.

"I... " Zuko began but faltered. His voice began to betray the pain he was feeling. Toph, the master of voices, took his somber tone gravely. The tone of his voice was too familiar to her, loaded with hidden regret. Zuko sounded the same way he used to, before the war 'ended', and before all this inner turmoil.

A certain water bender could sense this, too. Katara put a hand on his shoulder, and Aang moved forward. Her fluid, blue eyes shifted from Toph's small form, to the Fire Lord.

_If I wasn't in such a hurry to leave for home, this woulDn't have happened,_ Katara thought sourly.

"We have to tell her," said Aang with an air of finality, though the nomad himself looked more upset than his words portrayed. "Toph, I'm _really_ sorry. We all are." Her heart rate accelerated suddeny, the strong beat pulsating against her chest. It was almost audible.

"Sokka?" asked Toph, but she didn't hear an answer. Just breathlessness.

"Sokka why can't you just explain it to her!" choked Katara, looking away. Frustration and sadness welled up inside her, and she took it out on her brother shamelessly. "You're quiet." The boy raised his blue eyes from the ground to stare at his distraught sister.

"Why me?" Sokka asked monotonously, voice devoid of it's usual carefree charm. "I think we know thr person who should tell Toph what's happened." After hearing the rigidy of Sokka's tone, Toph bolted upright once more, panic invading her usually blank features.

"What's going on?" she demanded, and tried to swing her legs over the side of her bed. Only, she couldn't. She couldn't feel her legs, and without them she was tangled in a world of darkness. Zuko closed his eyes an nodded painfully to the gang. A few light footstpes told Toph he was approaching her side.

"I'm sorry, Toph. I never wanted you to risk your life..."

_But I'm still alive! _she cried inwardly.

"I never wanted you to get hurt, from the first time I accidently burned you... In the fight, there were earth benders disguised as fire benders. They collasped the ceiling."

"I remember. I couldn't... protect myself. I couldn't 'see' them," she said meekly. Zuko strained to continue.

"Yes... and it fell on you. It hurt you, badly. It..."

Toph closed her eyes, and she felt a small, soft hand slide onto hers. The reassuring hand of Aang squeezed hers as he finished Zuko's final sentence.

"Your paralyzed, Toph. From the waist down," Aang told her. Toph's hand went limp in his.

_It paralyzed you. From the waist down... _the worlds swirled in her head like a whirlpool, dancing in circles around her brain until they were finally sucked under. She was hyperventilating. Her rasing heart defied her mind, which told her that it wasn't true. The tears that started to burn in her eyes would not fall or admit the truth.

"No," she uttered, and tried to wiggle her toes. But she could not feel them. She couldn't see the tears pooling in Katara's eyes, or the way Suki put an arm around Sokka as he turned his head away. Aang's grip on her hand tightened, the only touch she felt in this black world.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: **Thanks for all the positive reviews! I really appreciate it. So, there's an issue I'm going to address because I can see from some reviews you all just HAVE to know about...

Pairings. Which I deliberately left out, because I'm really not sure. Not sure... at all. There may be no pairings, it may just be a friendship fic. But then again, there's that slight chance of Toko, huh? Don't worry if you're not a fan of that pairing, because clearly this isn't a pure romance, so you won't have to deal with it. Just stick with me, please.

That's all.

* * *

****

Chapter Two: Brewing Tea

They say there are seven stages for grief. Toph, with cheeks finally dried from outraged tears, had run through all seven in her dreams. When she woke up in darkness, only her ears were completely functional. Even her brain was lethargic with hopelessness.

Afraid to think, she lay still. The former earth bender had no choice. However, her keen ears were free to wander-heightened by total lack of sight. They picked up on some action behind the closed door that must have been close to the end of her bed.

"_Zuko, you can rest now,"_ Katara was saying in a whisper. _"You've been in there all night and morning."_Zuko replied hoarsly_. _His voice was rough and quiet, as if he had been sick or exhausted.

"I know, I'm waiting for her to wake up, I guess,"_"... No one holds you responsible for what happened,"_

_"I do,"_ said Zuko and the door opened and shut. She heard several footsteps as he entered the room and sat on a chair by her side. Toph kept her eyes closed, and let her chest rise and fall slowly so that it would appear that she was sleeping.

"Toph," he whispered above her, seemingly to himself. "I don't think I'll ever get over the guilt that's inside of me now, not unless you get better. Katara said there's still a chance-if she finds more water from that spring. It has healing properties, but... she's not sure how she can help. I swear I'll try to..."

Toph fought gallantly with her tear ducts to suppress how upset she was. Sparky just clued her in on the reality of the situation, but she didn't know which was worse. She would never 'see' again, or she would never earth bend again.

She pretended to wake up with a yawn.

"Hello?" she called weakly with the most heart-breaking voice she could summon. The bed rustled as Zuko shifted, alarmed.

"Toph! I'm here. I mean, it's me! Zuko! Yeah, uh... should I get someone, or..." Toph snorted gracelessly.

"Can they bring my legs back?" she asked bitterly, leaving the boy temporarily shocked. Unwelcome guilt washed over her when he fell silent, but it didn't erase the agony she felt about what she had lost. "No, I'm fine."

"Okay-um, right. Toph, you should know that... there's still hope."

A tiny flame that lied deep inside herself flared feebly.

Zuko continued, "Katara said that sometimes when people have paralysis, it isn't permanent. There's a chance you can be healed. It requires a lot of physical therapy, but if you're determined... !" He broke off, leaving room for her to comment.

"... I can't see," she said simply. "I want my legs back, but more than that I want my 'sight'. How can I do anything when I'm even more blind than I was before?" Zuko's chest sunk, but he knew it would take her a while to get her spirit to rise again. Toph had been wounded in more than one way. After his own wound was inflicted, Zuko remembered, it took him a very long time to recover.

"You'll get through this," he promised, in that quiet, deep voice of his. "I'll help."

_I couldn't help you last time, but this time will be different._

* * *

It had been three days, and Toph had not yet summoned the will to begin her therapy. The bed was permanently imprinted with her small form, and the white, neat little hospital room was host to a number of visitors. One of them was Iroh, but he didn't say much. Like tea, he said, she needed time to sit and brew in order to get stronger.

Sokka thought all of this was crap. The tea needed to be stirred.

Without telling anyone of his whereabouts, he at once made for the hospital. To him, Fire Nation hospitals always looked more eerie than the rest. There were so many casualties of the war that had once filled them that they seemed more used. Entering the pert building, he checked in with the secretary and headed up to the second floor.

The boy knocked once on Toph's door before entered in. As expected, his friend was laying on the bed with her eyes closed-either feigning sleep or thinking to herself. Her stillness bothered him deeply, more than he had let on within the past few days.

"Toph," he called, standing at the foot of her bed. She cracked open an eye to signal she was awake. Immediately all the stony intolerance he had felt before melted away. "How are you feeling?"

"Great," answered the sarcastic little ex earth bender. Sokka sucked in a deep breath, and eyed the object in the corner of the door.

"Well, I thought today you could get out and feel the sunshine. I'm taking you for a walk," he announced, seizing a wheelchair from the corner of the room, and wheeling towards the bed.

"No," Toph mumbled.

"What was that?" Sokka asked, pretending not to hear.

"I don't want to, Sokka," she said. Her resigned tone broke him. She wouldn't even yell at him. Desperate anger surged through him, to see his friend in this pitiful condition.

"What the hell Toph!" Sokka shouted suddenly. "Who are you? You've been sulking in bed for a week. I know what happened is... is beyond bad, but you're not even Toph anymore. the Toph I know woudl be up by now, trying to get those useless legs to work! How can you sit in bed all day?" he cried.

The girl seemed at first stunned by his sudden speech. her brow furrowed, but she remained limp where she was. She closed her eyes.

"That's great for you to say, Sokka," she said.

He was dumbfounded that his words did not stir her. She felt herself sink a little as Sokka sat on the bed.

"Is that it?" he asked softly. His eyes remained on the speckled floor, hands knitted together.

"I'm never going to feel the earth under my feet again. I'm never going to earth bend. I'm never going to 'see' you again, Sokka... " she said.

She sounded scared, he realized, not hopeless. Sokka turned around, and grasped her hand.

"You can feel this, can't you?" he asked. "You're still live, Toph. There's so much more... and there's hope. Please don't let all that go. Just... Just get in the chair." When he held her hand, she squeezed back. Sokka was sure it was a positive sign. But tightlipped and pale-she made no effort to move.

"Just get in the chair," he repeated, and in one, swift movement she delivered a numbing punch to his arm.

"I can't, genius!

The wheelchair was no more than a free ride, but as Toph glided around the streets of the nation she had really grown to despise, the sightless world was different than she had remembered it. Instead of recognizing a hot day by the baking clay beneath her soles, she now realized she was at the mercy of the beating rays of the sun. Feeling was everything.

And it was no comfort.

"Where are we going?" Toph asked Sokka wearily, with her face still in the same sour expression that it had been in when she first recoiled from the sunlight.

"Iroh's new teashop," he announced, pushing scenic route,

Vaguely Toph wondered about the outside world. She couldn't see any gawking faces, any damaged building, anything. She felt like a vegetable, The time stretched slowly as they headed towards their destination,

"Why are you doing this to me?" Toph asked at last. Without her earth bending, she could not sense his heart rate increase. She waited almost patiently for him to answer

"I don't like seeing you like this," he replied. "And everyone misses you-we're here." A fury of chiming and ringing told Toph that Sokka had thrust open the door and pushed them into Iroh's second tea shop. With a pang, she realized the whole gang must be there.

"Hey, you two!" called Suki, and a symphony of other voices joined her as the wheeled in.n The scent of freshly brewed jasmine tea reached Toph's nose.

"Jasmine or Rock tea?" Iroh asked, carrying over two piping hot tea pots.

"Doesn't matter," Toph replied, not wanting to be rude. She felt Sokka abandon her wheelchair to sit on the table they must be around. She was wrong about one thing-there were only the four of them. Iroh poured the hot liquid into a cup and handed it to Toph. Toph, who was somewhat used to handling herself while totally blind, took the cup gratefully, bringing it to her least those stupid earth benders didn't cut off my tongue or something. Anything but that,

"How are you, Toph? I'm so happy to see you outside of that hospital room," Suki was saying. The girl spared Sokka's girlfriend the snide remarks and didn't reply at all. There was nothing more Toph wanted to do that to curl up into herself like a turtle and tune out the world.

"Are Katara, Zuko and Aang on their way back?" Sokka asked Suki, trying to cover up Toph's rudeness. At this, Toph turned an ear towards the conversation. She was interested as to why they were not here.

"Probably not. They will probably take more time," Suki said. "They didn't send a message."

"Where did they go?" asked Toph without much enthusiasm, but her lack of energy was made up for by Sokka. The boy suddenly exploded with hidden hope and excitement as he told Toph the plan.

"They went to the North Pole! They're looking for another oasis to get more of that magicky-healing-type water that Katara used on Aang! And when you start your physical therapy, she's gonna use it and see if it works!" he said. A genuine smile grazed Sokka's face when he watched a flicker of hope light up in Toph's features.

Yes, didn't she realize? They were doing all of this for her.

"Oh," she responded, and she could just hear Iroh's quiet chuckle. _Little one, things are far from over. The end of one thing is only the beginning of another._

* * *

Sokka was taking Toph back to the hospital-only he was the one whining like a child.

"Do you_ have_ to go," he whined.

"I'm tired," Toph said.

"I mean, like back to the hospital. You can stay anywhere else! I still can't believe you want to be cramped up in that place."

"It's probably best I stay there for now..."

"Who ARE you?"

Toph sighed, unconsciously playing with the space rock bracelet she fashioned a long time ago. Sokka noticed this, and smiled again.

"You still have the space rock," he pointed out more seriously. As if only noticing this now, Toph nodded.

"Duh..."

It was more permanent then it had ever been. The bracelet that closed around her wrist-she would never be able to get it off without earth bending, or mold it into any other shape. The token of her and Sokka's friendship was forever intact, even if her bending had faded.


End file.
